2014 World Bank Land and Poverty Conference

Incrementally securing urban tenure: Promising practices,

March 24-27, 20141818 Street NWWashington DC

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Vertical Title Schemes to Address the Urban Sprawl Issue

Pauline MALAPLATEConseil Supérieur du Notariat

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Challenging Issue: Urban Sprawl

- outward spreading of cities- conversion of agricultural land to residential

use.How to make a better use of a limited resource ?

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Densification- higher density cities are more sustainable than

low density cities.- Public services- Transportation

- land use planning is not enough to increase the urban density.

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Vertical Urban Development- simple and appropriate title scheme for vertical

urban development in developing and emerging countries

- designing land rights that allow vertical development.

- designing association rules to manage vertical housing.

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Cityscape of Paris

- the City of Paris has the highest urban density in the Developed countries

- more than 21,000 inhabitants/sqr. Km- even 42,000 in some parts of the city.

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History of commonhold in France- 1804 Napoleonic Code (art. 664) stipulated that properties

- could share a common building or plot governed by a housing collective,

- while the airspace and floor space within the individual units still be considered privately owned.

- Differed from traditional English property law which required the legal

owner of the residential unit to also own the surrounding land. - improved by Notaries in the 1860s' in Paris- regulations in 1938 revised in 1965

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Lessons Learned- 150 years of Case Law

- thousands of cases to find out the problems and design proper answers

- trial and error process- this expertise help to save time when drafting:

- new regulation- contracts templates relating to commonhold

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Interprofessional Group- Notaries

- > drafting- land surveyors and/or architects

- > description of the building and units - property managers

- > management issues

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Framework Legal Tools- Framework legal tools that can be adapted to a

country-to-country basis.- Basis of discussion to tailor a solution that fits in

the country legal system.- Purpose:

- make it possible (regulation)- make it happen (implementation)

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Commonhold

- system of freehold tenure of a unit- within a multi-occupancy building, - with shared ownership and responsibility for

common services.

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Setting up the Commonhold

- deed of division of the ownership into several fractions known as "units”

- registered at the Land Registry: each unit is identified in the public records

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Association- The unit-holders collectively constitute a single legal

entity: the unit-holders' association.- Purpose of the association:

- to preserve the building, - to maintain and manage the common parts, - to safeguard the rights relating to the property or the

commonhold,- and to carry out all operations required in the common

interest.

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Land

- Ownership of the land is not a requirement.- Commonhold may be based on:

- long-term leases,- volumetric divisions (on public equipment's,

commercial real estate, … )

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Units- Each unit comprises a private area and a share of the

common parts.- This share:

- is expressed by a fraction.- is in proportion to the relative value of each private area,

in relation to the value of all of the units.- The method of calculation, duly determined by a

surveyor, is stipulated in the deed of division setting up the commonhold.

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Common Parts- General common parts:

- undivided property of all the unit-holders - used by all of them.

- Special common parts:- undivided property of several unit-holders - reserved for their use.

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Commonhold regulations - intended use of the property (private areas and common parts)- allocation of responsibility for the charges among the unit-holders, - rules relating to the enjoyment, use and maintenance of the private areas, - rules relating to the use and maintenance of the common parts, - rules relating to the operation and governance of the commonhold, - obligations of the unit-holders to contribute to the common service

charges, - method of payment and method of collecting the sums due, - votes of each unit-holder corresponding to the share of the common parts

attached to each unit belonging to that unit-holder.

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Rights and obligations of the unit-holders- unrestricted enjoyment of the private area and the common

parts, according to:- the commonhold regulations, - the rights of the other unit-holders - the intended use of the property.

- contribution to all the common service charges- the costs of maintenance, repairs, preservation of the property,

property management and the governance of the commonhold- in proportion to the fraction of the common parts attached to each unit

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Commonhold governance

- Unit-Holders association- General Meeting

- Board of the association- Management monitoring

- Commonhold manager- Day-to-day management

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Transfer of Units- Information of the new right holder

- Technical- Financial

- Obligations of the present right holder- Account’s settlement

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Elinor Ostrom’s Design Principles1. Clearly defined boundaries2. Rules regarding the appropriation of common resources3. Collective-choice arrangements that allow most resources

appropriators to participate in the decision-making process4. Effective and accountable monitoring5. Scale of graduated sanctions for resources appropriators6. Self-determination of the community recognized by higher-level

authorities7. Mechanism of Conflict Resolution

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Delivering the Expertise

- Bottom Up approach- Participative design- Low Tech Solutions- As simple as possible

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The END